It’s the 119th meeting since 1882, and it’s the Ivy League football game of the season.
Dartmouth (6-0) faces Harvard (6-0) in Boston on Friday night, October 30, at 7:35 p.m. in a game to be broadcast nationally on the NBC Sports Network. The Boston Herald describes it as a “highly anticipated matchup,” Harvard athletics calls it “pivotal,” and Harry Sheehy ’55a, Dartmouth’s director of athletics and recreation, says it’s the biggest Dartmouth football game since 1996—the last year Dartmouth captured the Ivy crown.
Alumni packed the stands for Dartmouth’s Homecoming game—the first sold-out game at Memorial Field in about 40 years—and they will fill seats again this Friday night at Harvard Stadium. Nearly 1,500 Big Green fans have registered for a Dartmouth tailgate, and Harvard estimates about 17,000 people will attend the game. Alumni and students have traveled to Harvard for football games since the rivalry began, including in 1951, as seen in the Harvard football program below. It is the seventh most played series in college football. Learn more about Friday's game.
Some say Dartmouth’s quarterback, Dalyn Williams ‘16, reminds them of Russell Wilson, an NFL quarterback and son of the late Harry B. Wilson ’77. In this in-depth article “From the Bayou to the Big Green: Dynamic QB Shatters Records, Electrifies Dartmouth Football,” Tris Wykes of the Valley News noted that 22 NFL scouts have watched Dartmouth practices—and Williams—this year.
As alumni cheer in the stands, some may be humming, or yelling, the classic fight song, “Glory to Dartmouth,” and the lines:
Our team’s a winner,
We’ve got the stuff,
We wear the Dartmouth green
And that’s enough.
By Steve Smith